News

Olympic Gloves Tournament recap and results

April 13, 2015

The capital city of Estonia, Tallinn recently hosted the Olympic Gloves Tournament for elite, youth and junior boxers.

Athlete of the tournament
Norway’s Jonas Soensteby joined their national squad in 2012 at the age of 15 when he competed in the EUBC European Junior Continental Championships in Sofia, and he fought at the Heavyweight class (91 kg) in the AIBA Youth World Championships last April.

Since then he has moved down to Light Heavyweight (81 kg) where he is finding a lot of success.

His semi-final opponent in Tallinn was Estonia’s Aleksei Kostenko, who pulled out injured in the opening round following Soensteby’s lethal punches.

The 18-year-old power puncher then stopped Estonia’s Maksim Zorin in the final, as he earned the gold medal after less than three minutes in the ring during the entire tournament.

Team of the tournament
Finland claimed three golds in the youth section, and also three top positions in the junior element of the Olympic Gloves Tournament.

Mohammed Hossein, Argjend Dushaku and Krenar Aliu achieved success at the junior level, while Khamzat Yakhiyev was their first youth gold medallist.

Miika Hartman and Santeri Laine continued the winning path, which resulted in Finland claiming the team title ahead of their rivals.

Surprise of the tournament
Finland’s Miika Hartman competed out of his country for the very first time, but took the transition in his stride as he won the Youth Bantamweight class (56 kg).

The 17-year-old boxer utilised his excellent footwork to shock Lithuania’s Arturas Zinkovskis, and Hartman is a boxer to look out for.

Ones to watch
Sweden’s EUBC European Junior Continental Championships competitor Felix Flodin comes from a boxing family as his elder brother Oliver is a member of the Swedish national elite team.

Born in 1999, the younger Flodin has medal expectations for the upcoming main junior events of 2015, and in the final of this competition he outpointed Finnish newcomer Masi Jurvanen.

Lithuania’s Edvardas Strelciunas has been a member of their national squad since 2012, and he achieved a bronze medal in the Danas Pozniakas Youth Tournament two weeks ago.

The 18-year-old youth boxer stopped Norway’s Youth National Champion Adrian Haug in the semi-final, and controlled all of the rounds against Estonia’s Vlad Romanjuk in the gold medal bout of the Lightweight class (60 kg) in Tallinn.

Stat/fact of the tournament
Finland claimed a half dozen of the gold medals in the Olympic Gloves Tournament, but Sweden, Lithuania, Norway and hosts Estonia also won weight classes in the event.